Platform hip hop festival takes over CarriageWorks

CarriageWorks is being taken over by the four elements of hip hop this month, with graffiti writers, b-boys, MCs and DJs filling the floors, walls and the air for the month long Platform festival.

CarriageWorks executive producer Jamie Dawson calls the festival “four weeks of high powered hip hop action.”

“I think the nature of CarriageCorks being all about contemporary culture and contemporary arts,

it’s an amazing building that lends itself to the hip hop culture. It’s in the inner west, that has the highest concentration of artists in the country, and it has a history of graf writers working from there,” Dawson says.

The line up includes Rahzel, legendary beatboxer from The Roots, Canada’s quintessential political MC, The Narcicyst and local artists Koolism and combines performance, workshops, battles, theatre and graffiti tours.

One of the highlights is the Platform Rocks the Block party on March 26, featuring Indigenous hip hop artists BrothaBlack.

Every Saturday CarrriageWorks is opening for free hip hop dance classes, teaching popping, locking krumping, and for the ultra flexible, breakdancing.

Dawson says he appreciates the local artists who add an Australian flavour to the universal hip hop culture.

“ I think the best MCs in this country are really fearless in the way they tackle their art form,” Dawson says.

“They are someone who can mix the political and contemporary, who can do that in a cheeky but catchy way, and someone who is really fearless,

“We have a really unique voice, it’s not pretentious.”